This has happened to a couple of my Firefaces.  It was from transporting it in a rack and the stress of the cable flopping around with other cables broke it off.  Even when I supported the cable the pressure of the strain relief seemed to be enough to break the soldering.  They are only held on by the solder joints with no extra support. Fine if it is stationary sitting on a shelf with a well supported cable, not so fine when used as a remote device in a rack that gets carried around.  Pressure seemed to come from somewhere no matter how I strain reliefed it.  To rely solely on tiny solder joints to keep it intact does not seem to go along with the rugged manufacturing quality of the the unit in general.  Fortunately I have a tech guy here in Calgary that was able to resolder the socket  back on and then soldered a support bracket along the top of all three sockets to even out any pressure.  It seems to be working fine.  Any competant electronics tech should be able to re-solder the socket for you.

I would like to give some more information. This effect, FW800 ports getting loose in the FF 800, can only happen with units around 5 years old, and after applying some physical tension on those sockets. Around that time there was an extreme shortage (so called allocation) of components world wide, and we were forced to use sockets that have no additional through-hole stabilizing pins for some months.

That said, if a repair is performed, the socket should be thrown away and a new one having those pins should be used. The PCB does have the holes for it. Then they will never again become loose.

Hi Matthias,

I just found both of my FW800 sockets fall off from my FF800, how can I obtain the service to have the new socket replaced for my FF800? I am relying on it everyday, and I am located in Hong Kong, Asia.
Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks

James

Hello Matthias,

Is the FW 400 port solidly through mounted in the Firewire 800 units with the loose FW800 ports?
I have had two of the units with the detaching FW800 ports and the quote I have received for repairing the one I own now is too expensive.
I hope the FW400 is through mounted and will remain reliable both in the studio and occasionally for recording a concert.

Thanks,  Patrick

I just had the FW socket on my Fireface 800 break last night. The unit is around 5 years old and has been in a rack and only plugged/unplugged a few times over the years. I was shocked when it happened. I did email synthax (US) to see about having it repaired.

My question is when the FW 800 socket fails like this is it generally safe to power it up and try to use the FW 400 port? It looks like the socket broke off cleanly but I'd prefer not to cause other issues by powering it on if there's much risk.

Thanks,
Rob

Also, is it possible to get the proper socket and have an experienced repair tech do the work? I have no idea what it will cost to return the unit to synthax and have them do it, but it would probably be less expensive to have someone local do the work. Does anyone one know what the proper socket is and where to get one?

Thanks,
Rob